INTERNATIONAL STATISTICS

Alcohol kills more teenagers than all other drugs combined. It is a factor in the three leading causes of death among 15- to 24-year-olds: accidents, homicides and suicides.

Youth who drink are 7.5 times more likely to use other illegal drugs and 50 times more likely to use cocaine than young people who never drink. One survey found that 32 percent of the heavy drinkers over 12 were also illegal drug users.

A 2007 survey of 11- to 15-year-olds in the UK found that one in five, or 20 percent, had drunk alcohol in the last seven days.

Of the 3.9 million Americans who received treatment for a substance abuse problem in 2005, 2.5 million of them were treated for alcohol use.

In Ireland, one in four deaths of young men aged 15 to 39 is due to alcohol.

Alcohol is a factor in half of all suicides in Ireland.

It is estimated that alcohol‑related crime costs the UK £7.3 billion a year in terms of policing, prevention, criminal justice and human costs incurred by the victims of crime.

A US Department of Justice study found that as many as 40% of violent crimes occur under the influence of alcohol.

In 2005–2006, there were 187,640 National Health System alcohol-related hospital admissions in England.

There were 6,570 deaths in England in 2005 from causes directly linked to alcohol use. In 2006, alcohol-related deaths in England rose to 8,758. This amounts to an annual increase of 7% from the previous year.

According to one study, of the 490 million people in the European Union, more than 23 million are dependent on alcohol.

In Europe, alcohol contributes to nearly one in ten of all cases of illness and premature deaths each year.